Student Design Awards 2017
Deadline: 07/03/20167
The Penguin Random House Student Design Award is an opportunity for students interested in pursuing a career in design to experience real design briefs first-hand. Every year, three books are chosen for student designers to analyse and interpret their own cover for. The brief is beneficial for students because it provides them with experience submitting work into the real world as specifications such as barcodes and copy have to work cohesively with the overall design.
The books chosen for this years categories:
To Kill A Mockingbird
Harper Lee
A lawyer’s advice to his children as he defends the real mockingbird of Harper Lee’s classic novel – a black man charged with the rape of a white girl. Through the young eyes of Scout and Jem Finch, Harper Lee explores with exuberant humour the irrationality of adult attitudes to race and class in the Deep South of the 1930s. The conscience of a town steeped in prejudice, violence and hypocrisy is pricked by the stamina of one man’s struggle for justice.
In Cold Blood: A True Account of a Multiple Murder and Its Consequences
Truman Capote
The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13¾
Sue Townsend
Adrian Mole’s painfully honest diary is a hilarious spots-and-all glimpse into the troubled life of a teenager. First published in 1982, it quickly became a best-seller and has since been adapted for radio, television and theatre.
I can upload one design per publication.
All entries must be submitted digitally - Entries submitted in any other way, including by email or hard copy, will not be accepted. This emphasises the importance of preparation and organisation.
Cheaply produced
Paperback
Appeal to a broad audience
Must be attractive to increase sales
Marber's golden ratio grid:
The adult non-fiction category is a crime genre so I researched into the grid system used for Penguin's crime genre in order to gain an understanding of the grid that I can potentially adapt.
Marber’s layout became the standard layout for Penguin Crime paperbacks. It’s stood the test of time due to Marber’s careful consideration of it’s application and requirements, the fundamentals of any good design:
All of the text is placed at the top of the publication which immediately and clearly informs the audience on the title, author, genre and logo. Setting the type at the top of the cover will give the publication more shelf presence because if the publication was presented on a shelf, the viewer would see the text first and understand the context of the publication. Marber introduced large images which take up the majority of the cover - providing ambiguous and intriguing company to the text. Marber has used the principle of hierarchy so the audience can clearly recognise the author and title of the publication. The large imagery makes the publication more engaging to look at which draws the audiences eye.
The fact that the grid system is successful over a range of different publications demonstrates its success. Marber has demonstrated Modernist design principles such as a grid system, clarity and function as it works over a range of editions.
Jan Tshichold's take over
A successful redesign of a book cover from Barnbrook
Barnbrook's studio has designed the cover for Penguin’s new ‘restored edition’ of Anthony Burgess’s A Clockwork Orange.
Barnbrook's outcome:
Creative Review - https://www.creativereview.co.uk/barnbrooks-a-clockwork-orange-cover/
Barnbrook's creative process highlighted in Creative Review's article demonstrates how the design process can develop and change as themes and concerns from the book are critically analysed. As a typographer, Barnbrook's initial concepts were based on typographic interpretation of language, however he states that his work for David Bowie helped to increase his understanding of the spiritual power of simple abstract forms having been looking at a lot of abstract painters at the time like Malevich. This shows how taking influences from broad and specific areas of design help to generate a solid and unique concept.
'In reducing the design to mere colour and shape (the circle is also embossed), Barnbrook’s cover uses two of the most dominant hues of the book. Originating in a Cockney phrase Burgess overheard in a pub, the book’s title, he wrote in the Listener in 1972 (reprinted in the new edition), referenced man as “a growth as organic as a fruit, capable of colour, fragrance and sweetness; to meddle with him, condition him, is to turn him into a mechanical creation.”
In this sense it’s Alex on the cover, hemmed in tightly by the white around him, perhaps a reference to the heady “milk-plus” drinks regularly enjoyed in the novel’s Korova Milk Bar. “It could be the glass of ‘moloko’ that Alex drinks,” says Barnbrook, “but it could also be a piece of 60s abstract art [in] one of the interiors of the houses that Alex breaks into; [or] the sun – energy and life – which Alex represents; the all-seeing eye of the government; or the eye of Alex, unblinking, forced to watch atrocities when being ‘treated’.'
Each publication is directed at a specific audience based on their age and genre of book, this will need to be considered for the final outcome so that it is appropriate for the target audience.
Submission
I can upload one design per publication.
Specifications
- Include all the cover copy supplied and be designed to the specified design template
- B format
- 198mm high x 129mm wide, spine width 20 mm
- ARROW branding
- All additional elements such as the barcode.
Shortlisted
Shortlisted entries will be required to provide the following submissions for each design entry:
a) An A3 board showing the full jacket to scale 1:1.
b) The design mocked up on two copies of the book (which Promoter will supply).
c) A short, typewritten text (max. 50–100 words only) submitted as a Word document, explaining the concept for your design.
d) An A3 board demonstrating the development of the thought process from the original research to the final concept. A digital copy must also be supplied on USB memory stick or CD.
e) A high-resolution PDF and jpeg of the front cover only and full cover design without bleed or trim marks on USB memory stick or CD.
f) The sender must prepay all shipping costs, insurance, customs duties and handling fees for all entries.
Shortlisted entries will be required to provide the following submissions for each design entry:
a) An A3 board showing the full jacket to scale 1:1.
b) The design mocked up on two copies of the book (which Promoter will supply).
c) A short, typewritten text (max. 50–100 words only) submitted as a Word document, explaining the concept for your design.
d) An A3 board demonstrating the development of the thought process from the original research to the final concept. A digital copy must also be supplied on USB memory stick or CD.
e) A high-resolution PDF and jpeg of the front cover only and full cover design without bleed or trim marks on USB memory stick or CD.
f) The sender must prepay all shipping costs, insurance, customs duties and handling fees for all entries.
Terms and Conditions
- There is no fee to enter the competition - Student friendly
- Must be a design student/undergraduate
- International
Penguin Books
Cheaply produced
Paperback
Appeal to a broad audience
Must be attractive to increase sales
Grid Consideration
Marber's golden ratio grid:
The adult non-fiction category is a crime genre so I researched into the grid system used for Penguin's crime genre in order to gain an understanding of the grid that I can potentially adapt.
Marber’s layout became the standard layout for Penguin Crime paperbacks. It’s stood the test of time due to Marber’s careful consideration of it’s application and requirements, the fundamentals of any good design:
All of the text is placed at the top of the publication which immediately and clearly informs the audience on the title, author, genre and logo. Setting the type at the top of the cover will give the publication more shelf presence because if the publication was presented on a shelf, the viewer would see the text first and understand the context of the publication. Marber introduced large images which take up the majority of the cover - providing ambiguous and intriguing company to the text. Marber has used the principle of hierarchy so the audience can clearly recognise the author and title of the publication. The large imagery makes the publication more engaging to look at which draws the audiences eye.
The fact that the grid system is successful over a range of different publications demonstrates its success. Marber has demonstrated Modernist design principles such as a grid system, clarity and function as it works over a range of editions.
Jan Tshichold's take over
- Typography is the focus of the cover - centred and framed by the orange lines.
- Consistent - The basic framework allows the design to work for numerous titles.
- Type horizontal and vertical - Taking advantage of space available
- Justified
- A lot of room dedicated to Penguin
Sans-serif typefaces have been consistently used over the years as they have high legibility.
A successful redesign of a book cover from Barnbrook
Barnbrook's studio has designed the cover for Penguin’s new ‘restored edition’ of Anthony Burgess’s A Clockwork Orange.
Burgess’s 1962 novel has had such a visual presence is in part due to Stanley Kubrick’s 1971 film version, where the director constructed a vibrant visual language for the author’s story:
Barnbrook's outcome:
Creative Review - https://www.creativereview.co.uk/barnbrooks-a-clockwork-orange-cover/
Barnbrook's creative process highlighted in Creative Review's article demonstrates how the design process can develop and change as themes and concerns from the book are critically analysed. As a typographer, Barnbrook's initial concepts were based on typographic interpretation of language, however he states that his work for David Bowie helped to increase his understanding of the spiritual power of simple abstract forms having been looking at a lot of abstract painters at the time like Malevich. This shows how taking influences from broad and specific areas of design help to generate a solid and unique concept.
'In reducing the design to mere colour and shape (the circle is also embossed), Barnbrook’s cover uses two of the most dominant hues of the book. Originating in a Cockney phrase Burgess overheard in a pub, the book’s title, he wrote in the Listener in 1972 (reprinted in the new edition), referenced man as “a growth as organic as a fruit, capable of colour, fragrance and sweetness; to meddle with him, condition him, is to turn him into a mechanical creation.”
In this sense it’s Alex on the cover, hemmed in tightly by the white around him, perhaps a reference to the heady “milk-plus” drinks regularly enjoyed in the novel’s Korova Milk Bar. “It could be the glass of ‘moloko’ that Alex drinks,” says Barnbrook, “but it could also be a piece of 60s abstract art [in] one of the interiors of the houses that Alex breaks into; [or] the sun – energy and life – which Alex represents; the all-seeing eye of the government; or the eye of Alex, unblinking, forced to watch atrocities when being ‘treated’.'
This ambiguous cover is appropriate because the restored edition is targeted at fans of the book, therefor they are likely to already have an understanding of the story. This will ultimately allow them to interpret the ambiguous cover in relation to the themes and concerns identified in the story.
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